After
creating an entire world where monsters work and play, Pixar studios returns to
the real world. Well, sort of. Finding Nemo takes us under the
sea, through bright reefs, rusted ships, dark, bottomless caverns, and into the
mouth of a whale. The undersea world
of the film is alternately bright and shadowy—colorful and dreadful. One moment, you just want to sit and absorb the beauty of some of these
images; at the next, you instinctively feel like clutching something in
apprehension. The film has
everything, really. It's
inventively amusing, genuinely thrilling, visually fascinating, and full of
humanity. Just like in the Toy Story films and A Bug's
Life, Finding Nemo takes a real
world setting and transforms it into something we've never seen before and
anticipate visiting again to try and catch all the little details we know are
just waiting to be discovered. I
don't know how the staff of Pixar does it, but this is their fifth
overwhelming achievement in a row. These
people are consistently at the top of their game and arguably the entire game of
animated filmmaking, although the latter could easily be a stated as certainty
if they keep this trend up.

The
film begins with a prologue that finds Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) and Coral
(voice of Elizabeth Perkins), two clownfish, taking a look at their new anemone
home somewhere near the Great Barrier Reef. The move is necessary to ensure
the security and comfort of their future children, which will be hatching in a
few days. Suddenly, Marlin and Coral
find themselves confronting a barracuda, and to protect her children, Coral
swims out to save them. Marlin is
knocked unconscious, and when he comes to, he discover Coral and all the eggs
are missing—except one. Some years
later, that egg has grown up into Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould), an extremely
curious youngster who worries his single father—now understandably anxious and
timid—to no end. On Nemo's first
day of school, he and a few classmates head out to the cliff between the reef
and the open sea. To prove himself
to his companions and, more importantly, to spite his father, Nemo swims out to
a nearby boat, but on the way, he's captured by a scuba diver. As Marlin chases after his son, he runs into Dory (voice of Ellen
DeGeneres), who will help him to the best of her abilities, which are
significantly limited considering her short-term memory loss.

The
film switches between Marlin and Dory's quest and Nemo's new life in a fish
tank at a dentist's office in Sydney. Along the way, we meet a widely
varied cast of eccentric characters. There
are thrill-seeking sea turtles that talk like surfers and have cute but
unintelligible offspring. A support
group for sharks that want to change their dietary habits ("Fish are
friends—not food") offers little help until the scent of blood arouses a
feeding frenzy. A school of fish
helps guide the way (and mock Marlin) by forming illustrations. Sea gulls are ridiculed for the annoying scavengers they are (when they
see possible food, they clump together and squawk "Mine!") and make for a
highly amusing homage to Hitchcock. Then
there are the characters in Nemo's new world—tank dwellers and local natives
(animal and human). Gill (voice of
Willem Dafoe), also a former inhabitant of the ocean, is the leader who has come
up with a few brilliant schemes to escape captivity—all having ended in
miserable, painful failure. Another
fish swears her reflection is her twin sister, and another is positively
fascinated by the bubbles that emerge from a treasure chest. The real treat, though, is the fishes' captor's orthodontically-challenged
niece, whose build up as a sort of monster child is more than fitting and who
provides a brief but hilarious second nod to Hitchcock.

Pixar
sets these eccentric characters within a world full of exquisite detail and
incredibly realistic touches. They've
gone to great lengths to make the marine world of the film fully believable, and
they've succeeded. From the
underwater terrain to the seaside locale of Sydney, the entire array of backdrops is superbly
lifelike. You can see the attention to detail in every frame, from the algae around
the bottom edge of Nemo's new fish tank home to the wear and tear on the sea
turtle's shell to the way the great white shark's eyes go black when it
smells blood to the brush-like teeth of a whale to the ripples on the surface of
the ocean when it rains. It's a
total antithesis to the cartoon-like design of the characters and even the
simple adventure plotting. Not that
the plot doesn't work, though, it just takes a highly episodic form with
almost each section ending with a cliffhanger. The adventure sequences are creative and exciting, keeping the
proceedings highly lively and entertaining, and the film has no real villains,
keeping it from becoming formulaic. Some
of the standout scenes include a chase through the ship surrounded by mines, a
race through a school of jellyfish, and Nemo's attempt to swim through
tank's filtration system to jam it with a pebble.

The
voice work is effective all around and great in some spots. Albert Brooks' work as Marlin begs the question, who else would voice a
timid fish? His neurotic persona
shows through even vocally. Alexander
Gould is just right as the scared but determined Nemo. Willem Dafoe lends his distinct voice to Gill, giving an air of unease
upon his immediate introduction that grows into sympathy as his character
develops. The assorted voices of
Nemo's friends in the tank are perfectly fitting, and Geoffrey Rush plays
Nigel, a pelican that gives news to the captives. Even director Andrew Stanton gets in on the game as Crush, the sea
turtle. The standout, though, is
Ellen DeGeneres. Dory's antics and
forgetfulness make up a good amount of the laughs, and DeGeneres' energetic
performance gives them a solid foundation. There's
even some pathos to her situation as the film progresses.

And
that's where Pixar's films have found their greatest success. There's more sincere heart in just about any of their five features
than we've become accustomed to in recent animated films. Just like Monsters,
Inc. ended with a scene of unexpected emotional impact, Finding
Nemo finds a similar tone at its finale as it hits upon the theme of parents
letting go and allowing their children to grow up without them. It's not what you'd expect, but it makes quite an impact.